Review by Booklist Review
Gr. 2^-5. With a casual voice and a cartoonist's eye, Stevenson continues to find poetry in the ordinary things around him. The words and pictures need each other. Each makes you look back at the other. The furled umbrellas are realistic: they are also facing each other having a chat. Several of the poems are elegies for what's passing: the old diner closing down with "memories to go"; a beloved manual typewriter; worn boots; the old tow truck with "a few more rescues left." Then, suddenly, there's a razor-sharp image of what people see but never quite articulate: the picture shows Christmas trees stacked for sale; the words show they are "Christmas captives / Tied with twine," leaning against each other on the city sidewalk, "Whispering of the frozen woods back home." Whether it's the clutter on the kitchen windowsill or what's "slopping around at dead-low tide," Stevenson reveals what's just around the corner. --Hazel Rochman
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by School Library Journal Review
K-Gr 5-A delightful collection of 26 short poems on a variety of topics including umbrellas, the classroom, cookies, the Fairbanks scale, and the windowsill. The small format, attractive layouts, varied type sizes and colors, and accomplished pen-and-ink and watercolor illustrations add to the appeal. A charming partnership of inspired language and design.-Wendy S. Carroll, Montclair Cooperative School, NJ (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Horn Book Review
Stevenson corntinues to transform the ordinary into something more notable in his latest collection of brief poems. Keenly observed and percolating with wit, whimsy, and sometimes nostalgia, the poems' subject matter ranges from umbrellas and defunct diners to old shoes and electric fans. The watercolor-washed drawings are loose and easygoing. This collection is as satisfying as a meander down a country road. From HORN BOOK Fall 2001, (c) Copyright 2010. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
Sentimental but never corny, Stevenson offers more sweet kernels of verbal and visual poetry, celebrating the everyday world of cookies, ice cream, and old shoes, a seaside tire exposed at low tide, growing its own seaweed and barnacles, a partly demolished house, a closed-down diner, images evoked by a clutter of objects on a kitchen windowsill. Or, he wonders, what do umbrellas think of the world (Every time they go outside, its raining.); who lives in that rickety old house with the fold-down dock; what would it feel like to jump barefoot into a box of jelly doughnuts? As beguiling for its pleasant unpredictability of topic and errant play of colors and typography as for its splashy, sketchy, perfect illustrations, this silky gathering is an irresistible invitation to harvest library shelves for his four previous collections. Time spent stalking this poet is never frittered away. (Poetry. 6-9)
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
